No Capes, No Cinematic Universe: Jennifer Aniston’s Quiet Rebellion Against Hollywood’s Franchise Machine

Jennifer Aniston is not suiting up for anybody’s cinematic universe. While half of Hollywood is busy testing capes and mo-cap suits, she’s stuck to the lane that made her famous: human-sized stories with actual people in them. If you were hoping for Aniston vs. Aliens in Phase 7, sorry. Not happening.

How she got here

The early '90s were bumpy for her — a few TV shows that blinked out fast — and then Friends hit in 1994 and turned her into Rachel Green for ten seasons straight, all the way to 2004. Since walking off that set, she’s built a career that’s pretty much a counter-programming manifesto: fewer green screens, more actual characters.

On superheroes and why TV pulled her back

Not unlike Martin Scorsese, Aniston is openly over the superhero takeover and what it’s done to the kinds of roles she wants. A big reason she jumped back into a series with Apple’s The Morning Show after years away from TV was the realization that the kinds of films she cares about had thinned out while streamers started pouring money into quality drama.

'I started to think, wow, that’s better than what I just did... What’s out there keeps shrinking into big Marvel movies, or stuff where you’re basically living in a green screen.'

She’s also got a soft spot for the kind of movies studios used to make without apology. Think cozy theaters and adults talking to each other like adults. She name-checks Meg Ryan and wants the pendulum to swing back toward titles like Terms of Endearment, Heaven Can Wait, Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, and The Goodbye Girl. You know, movies where the stakes aren’t whether the planet explodes.

The playbook she actually followed

• Post-Friends, she passed on franchises and reboots and went straight for original studio fare: The Break-Up (2006), Marley & Me (2008), and ensemble hits like Horrible Bosses and later We’re the Millers — all built around her screen persona, not borrowed IP.
• She balanced that with smaller, character-first projects to prove she could go darker and quieter. Early on, The Good Girl did that; later, Cake (2014) had her playing a woman navigating chronic pain and suicidal grief, which brought real awards buzz.
• That Oscar nod for Cake never materialized. Her response on The Ellen DeGeneres Show was pure Aniston:

  'I’m the number one snubbed! That’s the silver lining!'

• Streaming hasn’t turned her into an everywhere-all-the-time presence. She’s focused almost entirely on The Morning Show, a drama about media, power, and the #MeToo era — now her longest TV run since Friends, and the source of steady awards attention.
• Behind the camera, she dug in as a producer. She’s talked about walking into rooms after Friends and getting the patronizing 'how cute' vibe when she said she wanted to produce. That didn’t last.

  'I got to produce my first movie, and I can confirm I love it... And I’m really good at it.'

  She’s also said the goal is to leave 'the door open behind us so no one has to kick it down.'

About that Friends reboot

It’s not happening. Full stop. She’s shut it down in interviews, citing one reason above all others: without Matthew Perry, there is no version that makes sense.

'It would be literally, physically impossible.'

She’s heard from people who say rewatching Friends helps their mental health when the world feels terrible, and she’s called that the ultimate compliment. But the show itself is a time capsule, not a to-be-continued.

So where does that leave her?

Right where she wants to be: avoiding the franchise machine, cherry-picking originals, jumping into the meaty indie when it makes sense, and treating streaming as a prestige lane instead of an endless buffet. The Morning Show has been her proof-of-concept that charisma and commitment can still cut through an industry juiced on comic-book IP.

Will the market swing back toward grown-up dramas and romantic comedies the way she hopes? Or are capes locked in as the default setting forever? I’m rooting for at least a little course correction. The movies could use more Meg Ryan energy — and fewer sky portals — right about now.